But one of the most interesting things about Pickathon is that, befitting a farm-based festival that’s so freakishly close to the big city, it makes a concert series in the countryside feel, in the best sense, urban.

Beneath the tension-fabric roof that shields Pickathon’s main stage.

It’s a formula that only works because Pickathon manages to fit so much festival on so little land so close to the city: the whole farm is just 80 acres. And that’s something it does with a big assist from bikes.

The Springwater Corridor Trail is the best way to reach Pickathon by bike.

Thanks to the space that Pickathon doesn’t have to reserve for auto parking — about 25 percent of the 7,000 or so attendees arrives by bike, bus or shuttle, and thousands more carpool — its main amphitheater is uncrowded and relaxed.

But for a lover of urban design, the more interesting parts of Pickathon might be the lounge area tucked behind the main stage, for food and drink:

Further from its main stage, the festival is full of places to explore, including rows of city-quality food carts competing for your business.

Two secondary stages offer acoustic acts.

A network of paths integrates the music festival with the campground that sets up in the woods nearby and the working farm that hosts the whole thing:

Assuming my wife and I wanted to attend, $520 plus additional for food and beverages seems like a lot of money. Maybe ~$600 for live music is nothing for you, but it is a bit much for a lot of people. That is a whole paycheck for someone that works retail.

Pickathon is an amazing event, but I haven’t attended since they moved to this location because it just got too expensive. Obviously they have no shortage of customers at this price point though, so arguably, they’re pricing correctly.

There’s surprising crossover between acoustic music and cycling. Fort
Worden, WA’s fiddling camp populates the park with cyclists and not just the usual Huffy on the back of the RV type cyclists. My wife and I were trading touring stories with a few other musicians there last year.

While Pickathon is arguably expensive, volunteering for 8-10 hours gives you a free weekend pass. Burning man and Coachella, by comparison, are $600 and $399. I don’t know about Sasquatch, but multi-day festivals are extremely expensive these days, with state of the art sound stages (Pickathon had 6), awesome foodie options (Pine State Biscuits, Bunk Sandwiches, Koi Fusion, etc etc), and great beer which wasn’t overpriced. All in all, a great event if you can afford it.

Oh, children under 12 are free – there were hordes of children running amok through the event. They also had kid-friendly morning & afternoon venues with musicians and singers putting on events for them.

Burning Man lasts for more a week and is not a music festival, and only the hardiest of hardy souls would ever bike there. Even then, you’d probably have to have someone else haul the 30-40 lbs. of water you need to bring in addition to your other gear. And you’d better have a friend with some shade to pitch your tent under.

Anyway, the idea of making Pickathon (or any similar event) car-free is preposterous. Most people who camp for a weekend at a music festival want to bring more tents, awnings, clothes, gear, and beer than they can fit on a bike or in a suitcase.

We biked there as a family, tent and all. We borrowed a bike trailer and it worked beautifully. There are of course a lot of other shuttle and public transport options that would assist with the heavy loads and still avoid teh car parking at Pickathon. And as to riding there, the spring water corridor is a lovely, peaceful route with only minimal road time at the end.

I’ve sworn off biking in that area; I’ve had the worst harassment there and the roads have little or no shoulder. Which is too bad, because it’s my closest New Seasons and has a blueberry farm I’d like to visit.

For those of us for whom Pickathon and similar events are so expensive as to be priced beyond the pale: most Wednesday evenings you can find live music for FREE at Ladd’s Circle. And there are tons of coffeehouses and similar venues that support live music without charging a cover. If neither of these suit you, gather some friends and make your own hootenanny/singalong any time.